Historic House Vote to Protect the Right to Abortion
Advocates vow to keep up the fight to get this bill to the governor’s desk this year and protect the promise of Roe in Rhode Island.
(Providence, RI) – Statement by The Womxn Project on tonight’s House passage of the Reproductive Privacy Act (H 5125), a bill to codify Roe and protect the right to abortion in state law:
“Just moments ago, the Rhode Island House of Representatives voted to PASS the Reproductive Privacy Act (H 5125) and protect the right to abortion. We will share more details soon and we are urging you to please do all you can to help us keep up this momentum to see this effort through, but right now let us celebrate. Let us celebrate the THOUSANDS of volunteers who have come out and joined us at events or made calls or knocked on doors or participated in our postcarding program. Let’s celebrate the lawmakers who today voted to support every Rhode Islander’s ability to manage our health and plan our families and control our futures — and let us celebrate the many lawmakers over the years who helped to get us here today.
We still have a lot of work to do to get this bill through the Senate and to the governor’s desk, but please take a moment to celebrate with us tonight! The Womxn Project started just two years ago around a kitchen table when a group of artists and activists came together to talk about building a strong statewide movement for change. We are beyond thrilled with how far we’ve come TOGETHER! We are going to get this done. And we are going to keep getting it done. We are going to see this through and then we are going to continue to come together to shape policies to address the very real challenges facing women and families in our state and advance the kind of real, lasting change we all need. But tonight we celebrate. And tonight, we say thank you for being in this with us”
“We should all be able to live, work, and make decisions about our health and our future with dignity – not judgment or barriers. We all deserve the peace of mind that we can obtain the health care we need – and that ABSOLUTELY includes having the right to seek an abortion when we need to.” Jordan Hevenor, Co-Director
“For us, this is not about politics: it’s about our health and our ability to control our own futures. We believe that people should be able to get an abortion without barriers or judgment. Protecting abortion access means we control our own futures. It’s time to pass a bill that ensures in Rhode Island that we protect the right to abortion.”Jocelyn Foye, Co-Director